Last week Steven Frost prised me away from my desk in Beijing (where I have been spending far too long) and persuaded me to join him in Guizhou (and i am glad i did). Here are a few photos. We visited (at Steven's suggestion) a White Trouser Yao (Bai Ku Yao) area in the far south of Guizhou. Some of the costumes from this group are on the forum in previous posts.

This area is Yao Shan and the villages around (not touristy, have to hike to get to them though). Yao Shan is not touristy, but it would like to be. Lots of empty hotels waiting for the coaches to arrive. The remoter villages seem untouched. Costumes are worn daily by women and (amazingly) by men too.

The batik is in two shades of darkish blue, so it is difficult to see. I have attached a detail of the part-finished skirt in the village that we saw, also a detail from an old skirt that I sold last year (now with a sense of mild regret!).

The jackets also have some batik, but this sometimes gets covered up with embroidery.

Chris

Attachments:

File comment: batik designs on part finished skirt (the dark areas are still covered with wax and will be white or pale blue when the wax is removed)DongShu-018.jpg [ 100.23 KiB | Viewed 10068 times ]

Many thanks for sharing and yes, great photos. Glad you and Steven had a good time. He had mentioned that he was hoping to get you out on a trip this summer and it looks to have been a good one.

I have seen this woman's costume around in galleries but not known where it originated. Just so excellent seeing it being worn and very naturally, day-to-day. A privilege. I love the men's knickerbockers (sort of!) I liked on your FB gallery the shot of the white ones with red embroidery - you thought with an ecclesiastical flavour. Hope you don't mind but I am adding the photo here of the close up as well as one with the man wearing them with the two of you (gives the thread a bit more 'flavour' of the trip as it shows both protagonists!)

They were a lovely bunch. The photo with Steven in the red shirt on the left and myself on the right is with our landlady and her family, who normally hang out in "Addidas", but offered to dress up for this photo. Getting the younger members lined up was something of a feat.

Contrary to the impression left by our nice group photo, Chris and I are not giants. My wife saw this group image and commented that Chris must be huge.

I was very lazy about documenting this particular trip. Chris was taking plenty of beautiful images so I felt it unnecessary to also lug around my camera in the heat. Here are two additional images I took on our first day at Yaoshan.

The first shows women doing embroidery in Dongshu (about a one hour walk from the town). The second is of the Yao houses built for foodstuffs. Note the ceramic pots to keep rodents from climbing the poles.

The back of the Pu An Miao head dress. The way the Pu An Miao tie the head dress is nearly identical to the White Trouser Yao further south. I assume this is a type of head dress rooted in Chinese antiquity, perhaps one of our forum members with more knowledge of historical costumes can elaborate?

The headdress is (also) worn by the 'Bailing (or white collar) Miao' who do excellent wax resist work. Here is a photo I took on 3 November 2001 at Wong Jian village, Ji Chang township, Duyun city, Guizhou province. The village is a Shui village where Bailing Miao also lived. It is 80km (two and a half hours driving time) south of Duyun. A similar headdress was being worn in Ma Guang village, a Miao village very close by - you will, no doubt, recognise the style of the festival jacket.

I attach a couple of photos from these villages.

You may remember that Andrew Dudley has posted many photos of Bailing Miao wax resist bed covers as well as their other textiles.

Is the coloured thread work in the headdress embroidery or weaving? The Bailing Miao are also good weavers.

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